'Girls shouldn't have to wear skirts to school'
Two school girls from County Fermanagh are campaigning for legislation to force schools to offer girls a choice between skirts and trousers.
Rhea and Astrid successfully campaigned for Enniskillen Integrated Primary School to allow girls to wear trousers, and said it's "weird and unfair" that some schools still enforce skirts.
They are taking their case to Stormont's education committee on Tuesday afternoon as part of a hearing into broad changes to school uniform law.
Education Minister Paul Givan told BBC News NI the decision lies with individual schools and their boards of governors.
Some schools in Northern Ireland already allow girls to have a choice between trousers and skirts.
Enniskillen Integrated Primary were prompted to change their policy after Rhea and Astrid contacted Dr Mairead Ryan, whose research outlined a relation between school uniforms and physical activity.
In a letter to the school, Dr Ryan said: "Gendered uniforms can limit girls' movement and engagement in physical activities."
"Uniform items like dresses and skirts can restrict certain movements and inhibit young girls from climbing, jumping, and participating in other forms of active play that are crucial for their development," she added.
Rhea said: "I didn't really like being made to wear a skirt, it just felt wrong. It's 2025.
"It's quite hard to run around without your skirt blowing up in the wind," she added.
"All schools have the power to change it so if you have the power, then I think you probably should."
Astrid said: "I think its important to have the choice for our privacy and for our comfort.
"It's weird that some schools don't give you the choice to wear trousers. It's a bit old school."
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's The Nolan Show, Education Minister, Paul Givan, said: "Whenever it comes to decisions should I then give the legal right for a child to say I'm going to wear a school tie or not."
When challenged, he said "I'm widening it out, because it can't be taken in isolation between a trouser and a skirt."
The committee hearing on Tuesday will examine wide ranging changes proposed to the law around school uniforms.
It includes proposals to make school uniforms more affordable, and limiting the amount of branded items which parents and retailers have said drives up the cost.
Sports kits that 'don't last' push prices 'up and up and up'
Should there be a school uniform price limit?
Schools could be forced to explain uniform price under new law
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
It's Expensive to Become a Teacher in California. This Bill Would Pay Those Who Try
This article was originally published in CalMatters. This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. When Brigitta Hunter started her teaching career, she had $20,000 in student loans and zero income – even though she was working nearly full time in the classroom. 'We lived on my husband's pathetic little paycheck. I don't know how we did it,' Hunter said. 'And we were lucky – he had a job and my loans weren't that bad. It can be almost impossible for some people.' Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Each year, about 28,000 people in California work for free for about a year as teachers or classroom aides while they complete the requirements for their teaching credentials. That year without pay can be a dire hardship for many aspiring teachers, even deterring them from pursuing the profession. A new bill by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat from Torrance, would set aside money for school districts to pay would-be teachers while they do their student teaching service. The goal is to help alleviate the teacher shortage and attract lower-income candidates to the profession. 'Nothing makes a bigger difference in improving the quality of public education than getting highly qualified teachers in the classroom,' Muratsuchi said. 'This bill helps remove some of the obstacles to that.' To be a K-12 public school teacher in California, candidates need a bachelor's degree and a teaching credential, typically earned after completing a one-year program combining coursework and 600 hours of classroom experience. During that time, candidates work with veteran teachers or lead their own classes. Teacher credential programs cost between $20,000 and $40,000, depending on where a student enrolls and where they live. In 2020, about 60% of teachers borrowed money to finish their degrees, according to a recent study by the Learning Policy Institute, with loans averaging about $30,000 for a four-year bachelor's degree and a credential program. Entering the profession with hefty student loans can be demoralizing and stressful, the report said, adding to the challenges new teachers face. The average starting teacher salary in California is $58,000, according to the National Education Association, among the highest in the country but still hard to live on in many parts of the state. It could take a decade or more for teachers to pay off their loans. Muratsuchi's bill, AB 1128, passed the Assembly on Monday and now awaits a vote in the Senate. It would create a grant program for districts to pay student teachers the same amount they pay substitute teachers, which is roughly $140 a day. The overall cost would be up to $300 million a year, according to Assembly analysts, but Gov. Gavin Newsom has set aside $100 million for the program in his revised budget. Muratsuchi has another bill related to teacher pay, also working its way through the Legislature. Assembly bill 477, which passed the Assembly this week, would raise teacher salaries across the board. Christopher Carr, executive director of Aspire Public Schools in Los Angeles, a network of 11 charter schools, called the bill a potential 'game changer.' Teacher candidates often have to work second jobs to make ends meet, and sometimes finish with debt of $70,000 or more, he said. That can be an insurmountable barrier for people with limited resources. Paying would-be teachers would attract more people to the teaching profession, especially Black and Latino candidates, he said. School districts around the state have been trying to diversify their teacher workforces, based on research showing that Black and Latino students tend to do better academically when they have at least one teacher of the same race. Carr's schools pay their teachers-in-training through grants and a partnership with a local college, which has led to more of them staying on to teach full time after they receive their credentials, he said. That has saved the schools money by reducing turnover. 'This could open doors and be a step toward racial justice,' Carr said. 'California has a million spending priorities, but this will lead to better outcomes for students and ultimately save the state money.' Tyanthony Davis, chief executive director of Inner City Education Foundation, a charter school network in Los Angeles, put it this way: 'If we have well paid, qualified, happy teachers, we'll have happier classrooms.' Muratusuchi's bill has no formal opposition. The California Taxpayers Association has not taken a position. The California Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers union, is a supporter. 'This legislation comes at a critical time as we continue to face an educator recruitment and retention crisis,' said David Goldberg, the union president. 'Providing new grants to compensate student teachers for important on-the-job training is a strong step forward in the right direction to strengthening public education.' Hunter survived her student-teaching experience and went on to teach fourth grade for 34 years, retiring last year from the Mark West Union School District in Santa Rosa. The last 15 years of her career she served as a mentor to aspiring teachers. She saw first-hand the stress that would-be teachers endure as they juggle coursework, long days in the classroom and often second jobs on nights and weekends. But paying student-teachers, she said, should only be the beginning. Novice teachers also need smaller class sizes, more support from administrators and more help with enrichment activities, such as extra staff to lead lessons in art and physical education. 'We definitely need more teachers, and paying student teachers is a good start,' Hunter said. 'But there's a lot more we can do to help them.' This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Nigel Farage is clearly unfit to govern Britain
For a party which, rightly in my opinion, calls out the failures of multiculturalism, Reform UK should have had a view on the burqa. Whether that garb represents a rejection of British culture and the repression of women, or whether it is simply a matter of personal choice, Reform should have had a settled position on it. It did not. Sarah Pochin, one of its MPs, is seemingly against it and Zia Yusuf, its now erstwhile chairman, is not. The party's failure to have a line on a subject, raised no less by Pochin at PMQs, is symptomatic of a greater problem within Reform. It has no settled political philosophy. This is evident from manifold self-contradictory statements made by Farage himself. He is on the record saying he is not concerned about the rate of demographic change in the country, though he is worried about the cultural damage being done to our country. They are two sides of the same coin. On that same point, he would be prepared to consider a return of Shamima Begum to the country. He is against illegal migration but has no intention of deporting all illegal migrants. He claims to stand up for the United Kingdom but readily accepts that Northern Ireland will inevitably be united with Ireland. He recognises the urgent need to cut government spending and reverse the culture of dependency, but would remove the cap on benefits for more than two children. His lack of a coherent philosophy is also evident in the people he has recruited into the party. Nick Candy, his treasurer, is a Blairite. He offered to put forward Charlie Mullins, an avowed Remainer, as a candidate. Even Pochin, a former Tory, had previously welcomed Syrian and Afghan asylum seekers. He has recruited councillors and members from all parts of the political spectrum – from Labour and Tory to the Liberal Democrats. There is no heart and soul in Reform. It is merely a campaigning vehicle for Farage to capitalise on the discontent with Labour and the Tories. It is a protest party. The events of the last few days also reveal, yet again, Reform lacks discipline. How is it that an MP would ask a question in Parliament which would so offend the chairman? And why did the chairman then feel able to publicly denounce her as 'dumb'? Farage is Reform and Reform is Farage. He likes it that way. He has seemingly failed to establish a proper party structure and constitution. I campaigned hard last year for the party's democratisation. I did so in part so that it would have in-built checks and balances. With due processes established, there would have been no way for an MP to go off-piste in Parliament or for the chairman to then make a fool of himself. If Reform intends to be the antidote to the nation's woes, Farage needs to honestly reflect on recent events. He must realise the party needs a coherent political philosophy and policies which flow from this. He must establish foundations for the party which allow it to function and grow as a proper organisation. Reform is doing extremely well in the polls. If sustained, this could propel it into office. The party therefore has an obligation to take itself seriously and do the heavy lifting required to form a successful government. The sort for which we all so yearn. Farage is a brilliant and cunning campaigner. But he proves, time and again, that he is not fit to create a government or lead it. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Trai Hume wants Northern Ireland's young guns to set standard for squad
Trai Hume expects Northern Ireland to feed off the success that has been enjoyed by several of their young stars over the past few weeks. Hume and his Sunderland team-mate Daniel Ballard have been celebrating earning promotion to the Premier League after a dramatic play-off campaign that ended with victory over Sheffield United at Wembley. Advertisement And that came at the end of a month in which Conor Bradley received his first Premier League winner's medal with Liverpool and fellow 21-year-old Justin Devenny lifted the FA Cup with Crystal Palace. Ballard, 25, and Hume, 23, will double the Premier League contingent in Michael O'Neill's squad, something that Hume believes can only help as they look ahead to their World Cup qualifying campaign that starts in September. 'I don't think there's any doubt,' Hume said. 'You're exposing yourself to the best league in the world, so you want to try your best to do well there and if you can, you're going to become a better player because of it. Advertisement 'Obviously me and Dan are still young, Conor and Justin are still young, so hopefully we can have a lot of years in the Premier League and that will only benefit Northern Ireland going forward. 'I have no doubt there's other players in the squad that will get themselves into the Premier League as well. Obviously it's us four at the minute and hopefully we can try and push the lads and bring them up to the standard that we're going to set.' Northern Ireland are preparing for Saturday's friendly away to Denmark and Tuesday's match at home against Iceland, but their eyes are already on September when they begin their World Cup qualifying campaign with an away double-header against Luxembourg and Germany, with Slovakia also in Group A. Playing in high-pressure games like the Championship play-off final is valuable experience ahead of facing the likes of Germany, and Hume said: 'I think it will help us deal with the atmosphere a bit better. Obviously, the calibre of players will be a lot different. I think we will try our best to deal with that. 'I think the big games you do play in, you get used to the emotion of it and the challenge of playing in front of the crowd and not getting caught up in the emotion of the game. Advertisement 'Germany is definitely going to be a lot different than Sheffield United. Like I say, we will just have to try our best to be ready and be focused for it.' Germany are obvious favourites to top the group, with Northern Ireland vying to beat Slovakia and Luxembourg to second place and the play-off spot that would bring. Ballard said they would treat their games against those two nations as cup finals. 'I think we can make a really positive start to the group,' he said. 'I think the games against Luxembourg and Slovakia are going to be really important for us. I think they will all be like cup finals. 'I feel like we have a real opportunity this year to go and put ourselves in a strong spot to qualify.'
